Eain Yow stuns Pilley to reach second round in Cairo

PETALING JAYA: National squash player Ng Eain Yow (pic) struck again with another stunning upset in the first round of the Black Ball Open in Cairo, Egypt.

The 20-year-old defied the odds to come back from two games down to outclass the higher-ranked Cameron Pilley of Australia 10-12, 9-11, 11-4, 11-5, 11-7 yesterday.

Eain Yow did not lose heart despite dropping the first two games and went on to beat Pilley, ranked 27th in the world.

World No. 42 Eain Yow, the only Malaysian carrying the flag at the Platinum level event, will now face another tough match against New Zealand’s Campbell Grayson.

The New Zealander ploughed through Olli Tuominen of Finland with an 11-2, 11-2, 11-3 thrashing.

Grayson is only one place higher than Eain Yow in the rankings and it will surely be an interesting second-round tie today.

Should Eain Yow get the better of Grayson, he would likely to cross paths with world No. 1 Mohamed El Shorbagy of Egypt.

Shorbagy, who received a bye in the first round, will play Max Lee of Hong Kong in the second round today.

Eain Yow had pulled out similar upsets at the Qatar Classic in October when he defeated home favourite Abdulla Mohd Al Tamimi in the first round before pushing former world champion Karim Abdel Gawad of Egypt to a five-set thriller in the second round.

Eain Yow was in good form at the Hong Kong Open two weeks ago where he made it to the third round before he went down fighting to world No. 10 Mohamed Abouelghar of Egypt.